In hacking raw or green bricks for burning in a kiln, it is customary to stack them upon each other, such as on a kiln car, with spaces provided between the rows of bricks in each layer or course to provide as much surface exposure as possible for burning in the kiln. With some commercial brick setting apparatus employed to move and stack the bricks onto the kiln car, a plurality of elongated brick gripping members are inserted between spaced rows of bricks on a spread table to grip the opposite sides of the brick. For example, note U.S. Pats. to Dyhrberg 1,518,641, Penfield 1,760,993, Fontaine et al No. 2,710,696 and Pearne et al 3,478,397. These conventional apparatus require that the rows of bricks be spaced from each other a sufficient distance to permit the gripping members to be inserted between the rows of bricks. In recent times, inflatable brick gripping members have been employed such as, for example, disclosed in the aforementioned Pearne et al patent. These brick gripping members require greater brick spacings than the rigid brick gripping members.
The spacing required between the bricks will, of course, govern the amount of bricks that can be stacked on a given kiln car for a kiln burning operation. The greater the spacing, the lesser is the amount of bricks that can be carried on a given kiln for a burning operation. The efficiency of consumed energy in a given kiln operation will, or course, vary in accordance with the number of bricks burned in the operation.
With todays emphasis on energy conservation, it has now become most important to maximize the number of bricks which can be stacked on a kiln car to be fired in a kiln but this requires decreased or minimum spacing between the rows of bricks in contrast to conventional brick arrangements. In certain commercial operations this has presented a problem due to the spacings required for placement of the brick gripping members between the rows of bricks. In addition, the problem is affected by the requirement that successive course or courses of bricks stacked on the kiln car be placed at right angles to the preceding course or courses in order to form a stable stack of bricks. The present invention is a solution to this problem.